provisional ballots

November 15, 2018 - Voters in states across the South faced difficulties including long lines, closed polling places, malfunctioning machines, and voter intimidation. There were also registration issues that forced some voters to cast provisional ballots, which aren't necessarily counted.

July 24, 2015 - This week during the federal trial over North Carolina's restrictive voting law, the state elections chief testified that more than 96,000 citizens would have been blocked from voting in 2012 if the law had been in place then. Meanwhile, another expert testified that there had been a total of two cases of voter fraud in the state from 2000 to 2014.

July 17, 2015 - A new report examines the well-being of state democracies and finds that seven of the nation's 10 least healthy are in the South. We take a look at barriers to voting across the region.

June 19, 2015 - A new study from the watchdog group Democracy North Carolina estimates that tens of thousands of would-be voters were prevented from casting ballots or having them count in last year's elections due to a restrictive voting law passed in 2013. The law is being challenged in federal court, with arguments set to begin next month.

November 25, 2014 - A report from the voting rights watchdog group Democracy North Carolina documents the disenfranchising effects of the state's restrictive new election law.

November 7, 2014 - A national hotline for voting problems reported that call volume was up significantly during this election, the first in 50 years held without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. In several Southern states, the number of voters affected by new voting restrictions exceeded the margin of victory in close races for U.S. Senate and governor.

September 11, 2014 - An analysis by a voting rights watchdog found that 454 North Carolina citizens who would have been able to successfully cast ballots in previous elections had their votes discounted in this year's primary because of the state's new election law -- and those affected were disproportionately African Americans and Democrats.